Kamala Harris, the First Black President, Will Enter the State Convocation Center Tuesday Night with a Demonstration of a Multi-Ethnic America

Inside the belly of the Georgia State Convocation Center Tuesday night, electric over the prospect of a Kamala Harris presidency—or perhaps dead set on wanting to ward off another Trump White House—a crowd that cut across generations erupted into a 10,000-person swag surf. There was no thinking that the pandemonium was real. In the same place where Donald Trump was indicted, Vice President Harris drew her biggest group of supporters. Kamalamania had arrived.

star power was in every direction on stage. Quavo expressed his opinion about the importance of voting. Megan Thee Stallion performed a sexy dance routine. US senator Raphael Warnock, in the tenor of Martin Luther King Jr., spoke of “an America that embraces all of our children.” The night had kicked off with Stacey Abrams, a lodestar of Georgia’s changing political future, who reinforced Harris’ moral imperative for the country. Before long, chants of “Not going back” filled the arena.

It was an odd sight. These are not likely times. Harris will be the first woman and the first Black and South Asian president if she wins in November—a first in a country haunted by the specter of race, and ever threatened by a woman’s right to power.

To get there, Harris will need the support of Black voters, a typically reliable voting bloc for Democrats but one that has loosened slowly. According to one Pew study, 85 percent of Black voters with college degrees identified with the Democratic Party in 2020. The number dropped to 79 percent by the year 2020. This has been an ongoing trend since President Barack Obama’s election in 2008, a Data For Progress study noted, and the party will likely continue to cede ground with Black voters this year.

Tuesday’s event was an early test of Harris’ national appeal. It featured all the raucous ornamentation of a rock concert, and perhaps for the first time since the 2008 campaign, Democrats were again mindful of the urgency before them, and what it called for. So when the vice president finally took the stage, she wasted no time. She said that she was aware of Donald Trump’s criminal past and that much was true.

It was also true that the rally was a portrait of a multicultural America as much as it was calculated political theater—the very scene that inspires voters to show up on Election Day, but one that also gets called out for its over-the-top fanaticism.

They were not entirely off the mark. Since Harris entered the race less than two weeks ago, she has undergone a remarkable catapult into popular culture. Every identity group started grassroots organizing. Informal rallies were held. Record amounts of cash poured in. The campaign surpassed $200 million in donations in a week, much of it from first-time supporters. Harris did the impossible when he knocked Trump out of the news cycle, re-orienting the media’s center of gravity, and embracing the popular film “Brat Summer”.

Mr. Shapiro would send a signal that Ms. Harris is not stuck with the left over policy issues but puts experience before ideology. Choosing him would add an experienced governor from a swing state who could appeal to many moderate Democrats, independents and some Nikki Haley voters on a multitude of key issues. He would emphasize the need for moderates in the Democratic Party and provide balance to the ticket.

For those who look at politics as a mosaic, Mr. Shapiro would reassure them at a time when they feel that some in the far left of the party are hostile to them. Adding an observant Jew to a ticket headed by a Black woman is a question that will be posed by some pundits and analysts. America is more focused on the party unity and stopping Trump than on race and religion, according to the results of the Obama and Harris elections. Remember that Joe Lieberman was the first Jewish vice-presidential nominee, in 2000, and he deepened the heft, experience and integrity of the ticket led by Al Gore.

Vice President Kamala Harris has one overriding weakness as a candidate for president — she is perceived as being to the left of Joe Biden. Ms. Harris has praised the defund the police movement and supported single-payer health care. More recently, opponents have blamed her for what they see as a too-porous southern border.

At a mosque in Georgia, after 6 a.m. there’s a discussion over breakfast about the Democratic candidate,Kamala Harris. I would like to see what happens. South Asian people know that they have a pivotal role to play in the election and that their turnout could make a difference. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing voting bloc in Georgia, and South Asians make up the largest percentage of that group, totaling around 86,000 eligible voters. Joe Biden won the state by just over 11,000 votes in 2020. The path to the White House runs through this state. Kamala Harris is presumed to be the first Democratic presidential nominee of South Asian heritage. “There’s so much hope that I feel now.” Some are waiting to see where Harris stands on the issues, while others are new to Fulton County. “I’m definitely re-engaged. I consider myself to be independent. I’m unsure if I’ll vote before Harris enters because I was not enthusiastic about both candidates. “But I don’t know if anyone really expected how exhilarating it would feel. I feel like a connection to her because I’m a South Asian. I want to be more engaged and doing more than just voting this time. Parul is getting ready to organize her first ever fund-raiser with the help of her friends. When did you guys hear and what was your reaction when you heard that?” “She’s been a U.S senator. Now, she’s been vice president for four years. That is a pretty impressive resume. I thought that I would be the next president of the United States. “That’s very true.” “A lot of people, I think, were, you know, like going to vote for somebody like Biden regardless because they were scared. And, you know, it felt very much like they were going to bite the bullet. The people feel like they want to vote. The conversation shifts back to policy when sharing identity works for the group. “And somehow we forget that there is a middle class for a lot of us. Taxation, inflation, all those are important issues for us.” “The economy, essentially, which is what I think ultimately this election is going to come down to anyway.” The war in Gaza came up during the conversation at the mosque. “The Asian American community doesn’t always fit into a nice box along the political spectrum. We all have different identities. I am a Muslim American. The election is a combination of these different factors. I’m interested to see what Harris will do to differentiate herself from Biden. After choosing Biden, Asian American voters support of him has waned in the last four years. These voters could be crucial for Harris to win or lose the state. “She has the potential to change the equation of how things are done for the better. The entire society is changing. When I arrived, it was ’69 and it is still there today. The ‘browning’ of America is what they call it. It is an open conversation. So I think the Asian American vote, they can be convinced to switch loyalty for candidates and parties. I’m pretty confident I’ll vote now, but I’m going to leave a little bit of wiggle room because so much can happen.”